July 17, 2007

anniversaries

I let my third blog birthday slip by uncelebrated on July 7th (well actually I celebrated, but enough about that already), but I see that right about now it is a full calendar year since my world went utterly stark raving mad.

Starting, if I remember correctly, with a phone call from Radio Five Live while I was in the middle of signing up for unemployment benefit at an ASSEDIC office near Père Lachaise, the day Colin published his scoop in the Daily Telegraph.

Colin, my friend and mentor throughout, has written a post about it all here. What a difference a year can make, indeed.

In a couple of weeks’ time I should know for sure whether the legal battle is over, or whether I’ll be limbering up for round two sometime next year. As for the press madness, I suspect I should brace myself for a not very low profile 2008.

But in the meantime, I can be found lounging by the pool enjoying what anonymity I have left, in style. And that sure beats typing dictations and formatting accounts, I can tell you…

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Hahahahaha!! I’m ready for my close-up Mr. De Mille… That’s a very nice piece by Colin. I remember I was lying on my bed when you sent me a text to say me you’d been “dooced” – and I had to look it up ‘cos I had no idea what you were talking about!! You’ve worked so hard on this whole thing, you deserve all the success, hon. And I’m hoping to cash in with that collection of compromising photos I’ve been building up…:D And what I wouldn’t give to be lounging by a pool at the moment…

Following your appearance in the Big Issue the other week, I bet you’re wondering where else your photograph and story is being sold and discussed.

It’s a strange world, isn’t it – many bloggers seem to crave the attention of the masses, and yet you have now seen “the other side of the fence”. Perhaps one day it will calm down enough to give you some perspective.

I’ve only recently started reading your blog, having just discovered the world of blogging and started my own. Have read your story with great interest and am glad that things have improved for you. Thank you for your very entertaining, touching and amusing writing – it has been an inspiration to me.

If you can, visit World Heritage town Sintra near Lisboa and take time to walk in the lush green hills around the village. The outline of Palácio da Pena (Palace of Sorrow) at nightfall is spellbinding – and I’m sure Tadpole would love to see photos of the perfect fairytale palace…

By the way, I can’t believe CNN used the term ‘unmarried mother’ – of course you are one, so is my Mum, there’s nothing wrong with that at all but that term just seems so judgemental in their part. What has it to do with the story? What about ‘popular blogger’?

congrats — you’ve made something of a silk purse out of a sow’s year of an annus horibilis — I’m looking forward to the book very much and imagining that there might be a movie at some point.
my post today is a wee tribute to your blog and an order to all 10 or so of my readers (hey, I have a large extended family!) to go read your blog. Not that you need more advertising.

Now THIS is an anniversary to celebrate! Enjoy your much deserved rewards, like trips to Portugal. You may not know what’s next but it’s been one wild ride so far, and I think it will only get better (short of having to deal with more media insanity).

well, I’ve never been dooced petite darling ( apparently you actually have to have a job for this to happen) but I was once banned from the village post office because of my blog so I think I can understand what you have gone through. Anyway, Happy anniversary and all that and chin up!

@23 I found it rather unsettling to be defined first and foremost by my marital status. I am a single mother. I was unmarried even when I lived with my daughter’s father. And is this fact relevant to why I was sacked, or why I was in the news?

Plus it was coined by the Daily Mail – the very people who turned up on my parents’ doorstep, tried to interview my neighbours and local shopkeepers, and made bogus calls to try and find out my daughter’s name – so its use was anything but neutral.

I was wrongfully dismissed about 2 months ago and lost my much loved career, and im now going through the legal process… Sure it wasnt because of a blog but something equally as silly. Im more or less fully recovered now. I understand it takes longer for some, but i duno, im still sensing a bit of milking. I got all the financial help i could, gathered my strength quietly and got on with it

No doubt the DM’s intentions were not very honourable portraying you as an “unmarried mother”, but maybe your own description of your marital status on the blog
(“After living ‘in sin’ for 8 years…”)
left you more vulnerable to that kind of interfering comments?
Just a thought…
Wishing you the very best of good vibes and inspiration on the last lap of tweaking and fiddling!
Enjoy the summer!

Of course, the terms “single mother” or “unmarried mother” conjure up the idea that the child’s father is not present or around, which is definitely not the case, as you always speak well of Mr. Frog in that regard.
Your marital status is absolutely irrelevant, of course…

I agree Petite, I couldn’t understand why you needed to be described as an unmarried mother, this statement does not define you. It was in fact unnecessary. You may or may not be a great mother, it has nothing to do with your ability to do your job. I think you are in a very enviable position but I am well aware of the hard work and courage it has taken to get to this point. Well done.

I agree completely that your marital status is completely irrelevant, especially in France. After all, the losing Presidential candidate was an unmarried mother of four children with the same long-term partner (if I remember correctly). Also I read somewhere that 50% of children in France are born out of wedlock. Unfortunately, some countries have a less liberal attitude, hence possibly. the CNN view.
It is so lovely to have you back after what felt like interminable silence.

Happy belated blogging birthday, petite. This longtime reader and first-time commenter wishes you all the best. I always enjoy your posts and look forward to the ones to come. And in the meantime, bonnes vacances.

You may not appreciate their description of your status but you cannot deny its accuracy. Name, age, sex, marital status, job and location are pretty common journalistic descriptors: they haven’t exactly singled you out.

Hope you’re enjoying Lisbon. I visited a Portuguese friend of mine there last year and I fell in love with the city. Go to the botanical gardens if you get chance, they’re so beautiful and they’re calm and shady, if you’re an English rose like me who craves the shade from time to time! Hope you’re eating lots of sardines and those little cake specialties from Belem, can’t remember what they’re called…
Go for drinks in the Bairro Alto, so many cool bars and pretty boys!
And I adored Alfama, there was an amazing atmosphere when I went last June, there was some festival and the locals were barbecueing sardines in the streets every evening. Oh, you’ve got me reminiscing…Enjoy your break. x

Hi Petite,
assuming your passage is to go to the next level, i.e. if your case is going to the Paris Cour d’Appel, I think you would be best disposed to adopt the ‘Brace, Brace’ position ….
There is a severe backlog of files or cases, and speaking from my own experience, a case in front of the Prud’hommes, the case was heard in July 2006, judgement received 3 months after, and, wait for it, or adopt the brace position, arriving at Cour d’Appel in June 2008, the motto of the story being —
just surfing in and not expecting to provoke a sense of ‘mardi night blues’…
But it does make you wish that Sarko & Co will direct enough of their current budget deliberations that I see are taking place right now. Perhaps you can start lobbying for increased budgets on the prud’hommes in Paris, spending on the Garde de Sceaux etc …
Ok. I’m rambling. enough said.